I was fortunate enough to gain access to the closed-door demo of SWG at E3 today. Getting in was a challenge in itself, not only because you have to be inside E3 in the first place, but you had to have a special appointment to get into the SOE booth (which I did not have). I ended up crashing the booth with a special pass I digged up in one of the E3 program guides. I probably went through 25 of these programs before I found one with the pass that would let me in. Regardless, once inside I was privy to unmatched content and information regarding SWG, and an open conversation with some of the SWG Development Team.
The demo iteslf was spectacular (as one can imagine). We started at the character generation screen, where John Rogers went through the process of creating a female Bothan. He went through customizing the eyes, the jaw, the ears, body size/shape, skin color, etc. Really neat stuff. Once you create a character and name it, you go to a screen that distributes your basic stat points to one of three "general professions": Social (the guy talking about the demo said that such a character is, well, social in nature, specializing in politics or dancing, or whatever); Explorer/Adventurer (running around, exploring, as the name suggests); and Warrior (associated with battle and the like).

Then we dropped onto Tatooine, near Jabba's palace, with a butt-naked avatar as our character (John switched characters to patch into the server, which happened to be unclothed). So we pulled up a female Mon Calamari as our hero (I won't tell you whether she had breasts or not, because that would spoil one of the most interesting debates ever) and walked around a little city. It wasn't Mos Espa, or any of the known locales on Tatooine, but the guy talking about the demo said it was a crime-infested town, similar in size and nature to Mos Eisley.

We first went to check out what the Dev's told us was one of the largest houses on Tatooine (appropriate place to put it- in the slum). They indicated that the house had 12 bedrooms, and was 3 stories tall. We took a little romp through the mansion, and some of the rooms were really impressive. The living room looked very livable, with some nice blue furniture to make it more comfortable.

Then we interacted with some NPC's outside the house, who seem to be incredibly advanced. There were also exactly 7 other Player Characters from SOE running around on this special E3 server. So John Rogers (he was actually playing the game, the guy giving the voice-overlay was somebody different) asked for some help from his SOE friends, and ran over to a group of Stormtroopers who had recently appeared as a point of interest. He recieved this mission from one of the town NPC's (a Rodian), and the exact location of the Stormtroopers was then marked by a long opaque column of light (similar to those towers at the center of your temple in Black and White, but clearer).

So three SOE guys engaged 4 Stormtroopers in the dunes of Tatooine, and we got to see combat in SWG first hand. The system they are using is just as they said it would be, where you queue up your moves. They are marked in the upper-right hand corner, and easily distinguished. Then they took on an AT-ST that was hanging around the area (but I think they were using their demo-powers to take it down quickly).

Off to Jabba's palace! We initially approached his palace from the rear. It was HUGE! Compare it to the scale of those large columns we saw in the CGW screenshots of Naboo. Easily 150 feet tall in-game. We walked through the same partially-opened gate that C-3P0 and Artoo did in the film, and might I say that the gate alone was stunning. Brought you right into the films! We went right past the guards (who the Dev's informed us were not hindering our approach because faction point system was suspended for the demo) and into Jabba's throne room. There was a Twi'lek dancing around (although for some reason, above her name it stated that she a Twilek, and not a Twi'lek..hint hint, Devs). Jabba looked a little small, but that was because he wasn't sitting on his throne. An incredibly detailed Boba Fett was off to Jabba's left (everything was graphically stunning, but Boba and the gate just shock me). John approached Boba Fett and initiated the same sequence that would lead to his attacking Boba,but John stopped just short of the actual attack-smart man.

After the demo was complete, we got into a little informal Q&A with the Developers (the entire closed-door SOE booth was cool, because you could just hang around and freely mingle with all the Devs from SWG, EQII, EQ Adventures, and Planetside). Somebody had just put down his cell phone, and said "My son was wondering how exactly you critique beta applications, and if you could help him out." Everybody that was familiar with the drive to get onto the Beta team laughed, and the Developers gave us more or less the same answer as indicated in the FAQ.

I then asked them how exactly Jedi will be determined in the game, and they all quickly said "No! We can't tell you. You're going to have to find out for yourself."

We also learned that the system they were using to run the Demo was a 1.7 Ghz 512 Mb ram machine, running a Geforce 3 graphics card. The audience was stunned at this, wondering how such a dinky computer (lol, its twice as fast as mine) could run what must be the most spectacular game they have ever seen! Well, at least I was thinking that. But the Developers told us that they were still not sure what the minimum system requirements would be (although they assured us that you will be able to access SWG with a 56k modem just fine). Then, John Rogers cycled over into another Demo for the new arrivals, identical to the one they gave us, which marked the end of our session with SWG (as though any of us actually left after we were "supposed to"). As a matter of fact, most of us waited around to see the demo a few more times.

SWG was easily the most attractive game in the SOE closed-door booth, taking away attention from such heavy hitters as Everquest II, Everquest Adventures, and Planetside. Graphically, it is unlike any other game I have ever seen. The gameplay appears to be very rich and interactive. The interface is supremely efficient and user-friendly. The NPC's have an incredibly advanced AI, and there are enough emotes and actions to take in the game to promote a healthy and successful in-game society. After watching this Demo, I can now say with a great deal of confidence that SWG has been ensured a place in the Computer Gaming Hall of Fame.

-LethMan
Official Chatroom Hermit

Ulic Quel Droma

05-27-2002, 02:12 AM

woo go new zealand! :P

Juztyn

05-27-2002, 04:17 AM

What's your source for this, gavor? I'd like to post it in the news, but I need to have the okay from whoever it came from, first. :p

DudEhead

05-27-2002, 03:50 PM

hmm... so besides a geforce3, i'd better buy 256 mb ram too :)

Kwok69

05-27-2002, 04:31 PM

I cant see that there is any great leap between a Geforce2 MX400 and a Geforce3 so dont bother dude!:) I run a 1.7 P4 with 512mb and It will handle most anything (64MB graphics is always a cool bet though);)

DudEhead

05-27-2002, 05:22 PM

ive read in a comp mag that the difference is pretty huge... and i want to run this game at highest res if possible :)

RoyalGuard

05-27-2002, 05:50 PM

I think the difference between a Geforce 3 (basic no frills version) and a Geforce 2 MX is about 1000 points on a 3D mark benchmark...

definitely worth the upgrade if you have the odd 100 quid or so.

DudEhead

05-27-2002, 05:52 PM

i have the odd 150€ :fett:

Ingrown

05-27-2002, 06:02 PM

what is SOE?

gavor

05-28-2002, 01:30 AM

Hi Juz,

It came from the star wars galaxies down under forum and was written by Leth(sorry, no real name). The text was posted by someone called Darka Golloum, who I'm assuming is a friend of Leths.

The original thread is here (http://pub15.ezboard.com/fstarwarsgalaxiesdownunderfrm1.showMessage?topicID =107.topic).

Ulic Quel Droma

05-28-2002, 01:46 AM

so if i get a Geforce 4 TI 4200 its gonna run good or crap? :/

delta_7890

05-28-2002, 08:57 AM

Originally posted by Ulic Quel Droma
so if i get a Geforce 4 TI 4200 its gonna run good or crap? :/

...Well...4 being higher than 3, I assume it would run fine.

Ulic Quel Droma

05-28-2002, 09:29 AM

yeah but i only have a duron 800 with 128mb ram

setsuko

05-28-2002, 09:58 AM

Originally posted by delta_7890

...Well...4 being higher than 3, I assume it would run fine.

That is a common misunderstanding. Actually, there are some Geforce 3 cards that whops the bollocks out of the slower Geforce 4's. Mainly its a try from nVidia to get people to buy them because "4 sounds better than 3".

This does not mean that the better Geforce 4 does not outshine the better Geforce 3.

Xirion

06-10-2004, 07:25 AM

lol im Darka!

i remember Leth posting that! ill go speak to him hehe

DarthMaulUK

06-10-2004, 10:52 AM

The same spec was used to demo Galaxies before. Who remembers that video someone posted a while back with the guy who had an annoying voice?

The game looked STUNNING. But add dozens of players, lag etc - the game will not look like the screens shown off.